


How he got his soul

by ImaLazyLizard



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Angst, Blood, Death, Elemental Masters, Guilt, Reference to death, if i do all of them now it'll spoil, ill be updating tags, the creation of ninjago, zangst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:41:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25775302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImaLazyLizard/pseuds/ImaLazyLizard
Summary: How did human gain the ability to control the elements themselves? And why does Zane keeps the origins of his so secret?
Comments: 11
Kudos: 63





	1. Chapter 1

All the ninja’s were at the table, a rare reprieve from the chaos that constantly consumed their lives, when Jay suddenly asked, “Sensei Wu, can I ask a question?” He was picked at his food, obviously his question was eating him up.

“What is your question,” Wu never gave a promise of information without knowing what they wanted to know. He hoarded his knowledge, always so careful to never let too much out. It frustrated Zane, since he always wanted to complete their data-banks. 

“I wanna know where our powers come from, not just our parents, how did humans get these powers?” Jay looked straight at Wu, and so did everyone else but Zane. 

Zane continued to look down at his food, focusing on eating. He wasn’t curious, he’s been around a long time, he heard the legends that faded from memory.

“Hmm, let me see.” Wu wondered as he walked out of the dining room. The ninja murmured, surprised that Wu might talk. Zane kept his eyes on his plate, gripping his fork, wondering what he’ll tell. 

“Here it is,” Wu walked into the room with a thick leather bound book, “this book I got from my father. This details the history that my father was a part of.” Wu put the book on the table and opened it up to a page full of illustrations of massive beings. They seemed to grow even on the page, they looked to be amalgamations of the elements.

Wu cleared his throat as he began his tale, “Long ago, just before the creation of Ninjago there were these beings of pure elements that dwelt in the space where Ninjago exists now. They were almighty in their realm, constantly at battle with one another. 

“When my father came to their realm he saw how weary they were of the fighting and battles and proposed to them that they might be able to use their powers for creation instead of destruction. And together they created Ninjago, the ground, the sky, the weather, the seasons. Everything.” Wu turned the page to illustrations of the first spinjitzu master and the elements creating the world where they stood now.

“Many years passed and humans were introduced to Ninjago to exist in the land, but they were under the mercy of the elements. The very world was sentient, and just because the elements agreed to create did not stop their need to destroy.” The page turned to see natural disasters of floods, volcanoes, unending winter. The humans cowering as the elements raged against one another.

“ The humans were stuck between great beings that tried to destroy one another, and they were nearly destroyed themselves. Until the first spinjitzu master came to the elements and made one last deal to the elements, to give into their weariness and sleep, and to give the humans the means to maintain their powers. To let them sleep as they always wanted, yet still be powerful through the humans.

“And they agreed; water, fire, lighting, earth, wind, shadow, energy, light, metal, poison, form, smoke, nature, mind, gravity, speed, sound, amber, and time. All gave their powers to create the life of the elemental masters, and that is how their power continues to be passed down. Through giving the gift of life like the elements themselves to the humans.” Wu finished on the page that showed the elements giving their powers to humans.

“What about Morro, he never had any kids. Does that mean there never will be another master of wind” Nya asked.

“Elemental masters passing on without a legacy has happened a few times throughout the history of Ninjago. It seems if an elemental master passes on without any children, the element disappears for a generation or two before appearing again. My father thought that the break in time is the elements choosing another human they saw fit to inherit their power.”

“Then how did Zane get his power?” Kai piped in.

Zane’s shoulders tightened, his eyes glued to his now empty plate. His fans activated as his processors started running through that answer automatically. Trying to beat back the memories, he stood up, leaving the table trying to walk away from the memories themselves.

Wu glanced at Zane as he snapped the book and the conversation to a close, “That’s enough for today.” And he left, leaving behind more questions than answers.


	2. Chapter 2

No one was answering those questions. Ever since the ninja asked where Zane got his powers Wu and Zane have both stayed completely silent on any subject that could lead to their answers. And now the ninja’s were burning for an answer.

Which is why they were sneaking around Wu’s library in the dead of night. “Has anyone spotted it yet?” Cole whispered to Jay and Kai and they both shook their heads. Nya was standing as a look out, and Llyod didn’t want to get caught and stayed in his room.

The three friends were looking amongst the scrolls and books, which were terribly dusty. Jay was holding his nose trying desperately to not sneeze. “What do you think we’ll find? Maybe it’s a spell, or some kind of ritual that ice masters have to follow?” Jay nasally asked as he looked passed ‘101 Ways to Teach the Unteachable’.

Kai shook his head, “No way, I think it has to be passed down like our powers. But like instead of a bloodline, you just pick someone.”

“No way! If it was passed down like our powers Zane would so tell us! He’s hiding something, or has been sworn to secrecy.” Cole countered as he studied the higher shelves of Wu’s library.

Kai sighed, “Whatever it is it must be serious if they're keeping it from us. You know how much Zane hates secrets.” Kai was scanning what appeared to be journals of varying ages. “Here it is!” Kai cheered, `The record of the First Spinjitzu Master’!” Kai grabbed the thick leather bound journal into his arms as the other two gathered around him.

“Do you guys want to be found out! You are way too loud!” Nya whispered at them as she stuck in her head through the door. Seeing that they found the journal she quickly sprinted to the small group to get a look.

Kai was flipping through the pages going off of his memories of the pictures that Wu showed them in the book, mumbling at the familiar pages, “...Mother of all dragons…..There’s the oni…..Escaping the first realm…..the creation of ninjago…...Here! The origins of the elemental masters!”

The three looked at the familiar images of the elements destroying ninjago, of the First Spinjitzu Master’s deal, and the elements giving their gifts. The four ninja desperately looked across the page for the depiction of the ice element and its created master.

Cole furrowed his brow, “I don’t get it. Earlier the book mentioned the ice element when they created ninjago, but there is no mention of them here.”

“Maybe it’s just on the next page? Maybe it demanded extra and so it got its own page?” Jay asked as he reached over Kai’s arm to turn the page himself.

The next page was soaked in red and whit. Red paint depicting a battle against the white ice element. They could see the first elemental masters along with an army of men battling the enraged element as it seemed to freeze and kill all in it’s path.

“What does it say?” Nya breathed, she could barely see the text from where she was standing.

Kai slowly began to read the script, “All but one of the elements were content with the deal. Ice was insulted by it’s companions weakness in giving up their powers to the mortals, and was determined to wipe them out itself. Ice waged war with the humans and new masters of the elements. But with the other elements asleep the humans struggled against the enraged element, it’s freezing fury sent ninjago into an ice age. The sun was clouded by the snow, no crops grew, and Ice drained the life from the humans. All seemed lost till that last battle, where one clever soldier used his armies front attack to distract the Ice elemental and quickly stabbed the elemental with a sword of vengestone. All that suffering and death for one simple strike.” 

Kai took a moment to flip the page showing the single soldier with the element, it looked dead on the floor, “An element cannot die, but in its weakness that was the closest thing it could recognize as death, it gave up its powers to the soldier who struck it down. It was clear to the Ice that the humans were strong enough to wield its powers, and so it gave up its power like its companions.

“But unlike the other elements that gave its power through life, Ice gave it through death. Now every ice master's hands are stained with blood of the last, and each must be observed carefully. For those who are willing to go such extremes to gain power cannot always be trusted.”

The four were silent, taking in what they heard. The only sound was the simple breathing of four shocked friends. 

Jay opened and closed his mouth, he couldn’t decide what to say. “That….That must be wrong…”

Cole nodded his head, “You can’t have read that right Kai. There must be something else!” He reached to the book and flipped the page hoping that there was anything else explaining their friends' ice powers.

The next page was a list. 

A list of names. 

Twelve names.

Most names had a date next to it.

Some of them had a cause of death next to them.

At the bottom of the list, there was a name with no date and no cause of death. 

Zane.


	3. Chapter 3

It was too quiet this morning. 

Zane has gotten used to the ruckus of living with the ninja, including their badgering about his powers over the week. Jay was even trying a new technique of trying to surprise answers out of him in the morning. But this morning everyone was silent as he woke up, rushing out of the room, leaving Zane behind without a word. 

The kitchen was tense when he walked in, hushing their murmurs the second they saw him walk in, avoiding his gaze. Cole walked out bumping into him. They all looked exhausted, drowsily eating either cold leftovers or cereal. Zane tries to break the ice, “Are you guys ok? I can make something if you’re feeling rough.” They looked at him now, and Zane’s facial recognition could not tell what they were showing, there was so much in their eyes yet so little to their faces. Their stares where too much, the bounty was swaying too much, it was too much. Zane stumbled out of the room feeling their eyes as he walked out, continuing with his usual schedule. Hoping it was just exhaustion that made his team so quiet and tense.

He walked over to their training dummy, he saw Cole, furiously pounding the dummy. Favoring strength instead of technique, pounding at it like it insulted him. “Jay won’t appreciate that he has to fix the dummy again so early.” Zane warned Cole as he punched off the head of the dummy.

Cole stood there breathing heavily unwrapping the gauze on his hands. “Were you ever going to tell us?” His voice muted.

“Tell you what?” 

Cole turned towards him and stalked towards Zane, he looked exhausted. Cole walked in close cornering Zane against the rail. Cole was too close as he continued to invade his space. Cole stared at Zane, he couldn’t decide if he saw anger or sadness.

“Were you ever going to tell us?” He whispered, close and low.

Zane kept eye contact, “I...I don’t-”

“Don't lie... We read the book. Saw the list. We know what you did.” Cole never raised his voice, he just got quieter as he struggled to stay calm.

Zane paused, breaking his gaze as he saw the rest of his family entering the deck and standing by Cole, none of them moved to pull either of them away.

He immediately felt the pressure, from their stares, from their presence, from their betrayal. It was practically tangible as Zane stood there stewing in it, the atmosphere felt like a pressure pot that was about to burst.

Zane sighed as he relented, “No. I was never going to tell any of you.” 

“Why!?” Jay's voice broke, “Why did you...Why weren’t you… Do you… Do you..” Static sparked across his fingers, and Nya put a hand on his shoulder to calm him. She stared Zane dead in the eyes. “Why.”

Sighing at the question, Zane wasn’t sure how they wanted him to answer, he just knew that they’d hate it. “Because I know how you would respond, you wouldn’t understand.” He stated blankly, side-stepping the question they really wanted answered. “Now if you’d excuse me,” Zane tried to extract himself from in between Cole and the railing, but Cole's strong grip on his shoulder stopped him.

“No.” Cole held onto him, Zane could feel that his grip was shaking. “You knew what she meant. Why?”

Zane stared at the deck, he felt as if everything was crumbling. They knew, no matter what he said, truthful or not, they'd hate him. He’d lose it all, based on how they were reacting he’s already lost it, his family, his place, their trust. Zane was spiraling going down possible answers he could give to lessen the imminent damage. 

A soft pressure on his other shoulder snapped him out of his panic, it was Lloyd who put the reassuring hand on his shoulder. 

“Zane, we just want to know the truth. We’re just in shock, this seems so unlike you.” He was speaking calmly, quietly, carefully comforting, yet probing for the information he desired. “All we want to know is why.” He finished carefully, “,all we want is the truth.”

Putting his head in his hands he whispered, “...the truth… that’s the problem… the truth is hard…to understand….” There was a pause, and a murmur between the two hands on his shoulders. They pulled him from the corner, leading him back towards the lower deck of the Bounty.

“Let’s go inside,” Cole murmured as he and Lloyd led him and the other ninja into the kitchen. Zane followed them as they brought him in and sat him down at the table. Lloyd sat diagonally from him as the rest of the ninja remained at the other side of the room.It looked like an interrogation, it felt like one too. Zane stared at his hands, twiddling with them. Hoping the silence would last forever, that he wouldn’t have to break it. 

And he didn’t, Lloyd gave a small cough to get his attention, “Zane?” Lloyd asked trying to get him to look up, and when he saw he wouldn’t, continued on. “Let’s start at the beginning. Ok?” Lloyd put a hand on Zane’s, stopping his twitching. “Why did you kill the last elemental master of ice?”

The silence pounded like a heartbeat as he thought how to answer.“...that’s not the beginning... but the end… if i told you that now you’d never understand… let me begin at the beginning....

“I never told you why we were hiding in that tree….”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope ya'll are enjoying this!! :D


	4. Chapter 4

“My father built me shortly after the Serpentine Wars, he built me to be the son he never had. We hid in that tree due to father deserting from the war. He told me that he deserted after finding out that his village was massacred since there was no one there to defend the village. He lost his wife and unborn child.”

“So you knew you were a nindroid?” Jay piped in, his brows scrunched.

“Yes, I knew. He wanted me to be human, but due to the nature of my existence and how he constantly modified my workings, it would have been impossible to keep up a ridiculous charade like that. And that was most of my existence, being constantly tweaked and modified as my father tried to make me as human as a machine could be.”

“Tried?” Cole interjected.

“Yes. I lacked an important element that kept me from being ‘human’, sentience. I could make decisions, I could care for myself and others, but I lacked all emotion and had no perception of self, besides that I had tasks I was required to do.”

“Why is this important?” Kai huffed, patience wearing thin.

“Because without the context the story makes no sense,” Zane countered. “Father was desperate to ‘complete me’ as he always said, and he tried increasingly improbable and illogical ways to give me this vital piece, a soul is what he always called it...” Zane was deep in thought, and he was closing down, as if he was returning to that era. His hands stilled, his eyes drained to a blank, he seemed to stop breathing, and his spine straightened almost unnaturaly.

Nya coughed as Lloyd gently shook Zane’s shoulder, partially breaking the spell. He still remained ominous still, but his chest started to gently rise and fall and his eyes leaked emotion once again. “Sorry,” he mumbled as he got back to the story, “My father was desperate to give me this piece, and his prayers were answered when an old man turned up at our home. 

“Father was terrified when I returned from my chores with the old man. I explained that a snowstorm showed up shortly after he arrived, and that I offered him shelter for the night. I had no idea who he was, but father did. He recognized him from the war, he was a general in the war as all the elemental masters where. He was terrified until he recognized which elemental master he was.”

“In my father's search to find me a soul he came across the old story of the 15 weavers and the thief, an olds children tale that he heard as a child. But he found an older story, much closer to the original tale of the element masters and how their powers are passed down. When father recognized that I brought home the thief, he saw how his problem could be solved.”

“Wait, wait, wait!” Kai rubbed his temples, “your father, the kind, quiet, old man, thought up the plot to kill the elemental master of ice!?!”

“Well he wasn’t as old back then, and you didn’t see the desperation on his face every time a different idea didn’t work. I didn’t know how much desperation could push someone, where it could push someone…” 

Glances were exchanged amongst the room, as Zane took a moment. When he started talking again, his voice sounded strained, and his eyes were glazed, “We had the old man overnight, he slept on my bed. I remember when my father pulled me out of the room, he explained to me how that old man was a general in the war, that he must be looking for deserters, because how could he have found us otherwise? We hid ourselves in the deepest part of the forest where the treehorns were vicious, we almost never saw other humans, let alone anyone by themselves. He then left with Falcon, saying he was going to check if there were any soldiers in the closest village.” 

Zane stopped, still and tense. He no longer moved, as if there was something stopping him. Lloyd put his hand back on his, feeling the slight hum of his electronics through his synthetics. Zane grabbed his hand. Clenching it tightly. His eyes were staring ahead at nothing. He slowly began again in his retelling. Sounding dead, “When he left I considered the information he told me and how to best remedy the problem. If the old man had any reinforcements they must’ve been at the closest village, due to the terrible blizzard, which means they were an hour and a half away by foot. If we let the man go, he knew where we were, and if we tried to leave after he left we wouldn’t get far. Deserters were punished severely, I was programmed to protect my father and myself from harm, but could not do much against a group of trained soldiers.”

“So you’re dad didn’t tell you that he was an elemental master?” Jay interrupted, placing a glass of water on the table. 

“No he didn’t, I would not have taken the risk otherwise…”

“So your father told you to kill him?” Cole added

“No. I made that decision. Father explained after that he was worried that if he told me to… do it. That he would be the one who would get it. My father thought that choice was the key factor that decided it, the power never went to the sword that killed but the hand.”

“Were there any soldiers?” Nya whispered.

“...It turns out there wasn’t. And if I waited 10 minutes I would have known… He said he regretted trying to put the idea in my head. He said he came to his senses, but he still waited. He waited 20 minutes for Falcon to come back, until he came inside…”

“And by then?” Lloyd asked softly.

“By then I had made my decision. He was asleep. and he was old. I didn’t think it would take a lot... I had a knife... i don’t know if he was awake the whole time or if I was too loud… there was so much red…. i thought i’d never stop .... i was so cold… everything hurt… i was screaming…” Zane went silent, dissociating as those memories replayed again and again. The struggle, the blood, the cold, the shame, his father’s face. Again and again he circled the drain of that darkness, regret, of-

A sudden embrace broke his thoughts, his memories as he refocused to the world. Jay was squeezing him, so tight if he was human we wouldn’t be able to breath. Jay broke Zane’s circling, but nothing broke the tense silence and the darkness on the edge of Zane’s mind. The other’s thinking, judging his story, gauging the validity, deciding what to do with him.

Jay squeezed again, tightening and loosening around the nindroid, trying to keep him in the present. As the silence ticked on. Until Lloyd gently pulled the blue ninja off of him, clearing his throat he started, “Zane, I think that we need some time to think about this. To come to terms about this part of your past. But Zane, “ He grabbed his hand and squeezed, “I don’t hate you.”

And that’s when he broke down...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might write something else for this, but for now this is the ending.  
> Please enjoy, and if you could please tell me what you thought!
> 
> Have a great day y'all! 😀


End file.
